Washington Post's Dr. Gridlock, Joe diGenova and MD Governor Larry Hogan joined WMAL on Monday.
INTERVIEW — MARYLAND GOVERNOR LARRY HOGAN – new Republican Governor of Maryland – discussed his first few weeks in office.
INTERVIEW – JOE DIGENOVA – legal analyst and former U.S. Attorney to the District of Columbia
INTERVIEW: ROBERT THOMSON – Washington Post's Dr. Gridlock
Mornings on the Mall
Monday, February 9, 2015
Hosts: Brian Wilson and Larry O’Connor
5am – A/B/C Lyin’ Brian Williams: Do you forgive him or he does he have to go?
- A Personal Note from Brian Williams: In the midst of a career spent covering and consuming news, it has become painfully apparent to me that I am presently too much a part of the news, due to my actions. As Managing Editor of NBC Nightly News, I have decided to take myself off of my daily broadcast for the next several days, and Lester Holt has kindly agreed to sit in for me to allow us to adequately deal with this issue. Upon my return, I will continue my career-long effort to be worthy of the trust of those who place their trust in us.
- Brian Williams won't keep his date with David Letterman. Brian Williams is backing out of his scheduled appearance on CBS's "Late Show with David Letterman," citing the uncertainty about when he'll be back at his anchor desk. The "NBC Nightly News" anchor is at the center of a growing scandal over his inaccurate recounting of an Iraq War mission in 2003. He said on Saturday that he would take a hiatus from the evening news "for the next several days." But until Sunday afternoon he was still scheduled to show up for his date with Letterman on Thursday.
- Puppy-Gate: Did Brian Williams Save One Puppy Or Two From A Fire? (Daily Caller) — After national outrage over misleading comments about his time in Iraq, NBC’s Nightly News anchor Brian Williams is now taking a temporary leave of absence. This time away from the anchor desk has not stopped the growing scrutiny of other boastful claims he has made in his past. He is now under fire for his inconsistent story about saving puppies from a house on fire. In an interview with Esquire in 2005, Williams touted, “All I ever did as a volunteer fireman was once save two puppies.” But in 2011, Williams told another puppy-saving tale. This time, he bravely saved only one puppy — not two — as a teenage volunteer firefighter in New Jersey. “I remember one such house fire — the structure was fully involved with flames and smoke. I was wearing a breathing apparatus, conducting a search on my hands and knees, when I felt something warm, squishy and furry on the floor of a closet. I instinctively tucked it in my coat. When I got outside, I saw two small eyes staring up at me, and I returned the 3-week-old (and very scared) puppy to its grateful owners,” he told USA Weekend. In addition to his dueling versions of alleged heroics over a puppy, he has claimed to have caught dysentery from drinking the water while reporting on Hurricane Katrina and saw a body float by in the largely dry high ground area of the French Quarter during the hurricane. Williams also gave differing accounts in 2008 and 2013 about his interview with Nelson Mandela.
5am – D Teachers overwhelmingly oppose later high school start times in Montgomery. (Washington Post) — Montgomery County teachers overwhelmingly oppose all options for starting public high school later to give students more time to sleep, according to a new union survey. The results put the county’s teachers in stark contrast with parents and health experts who have been lobbying for the change. Nearly half of the district’s 12,000 teachers responded to the survey, and 63 percent said they favor not changing high school bell times, the only one of seven options the school board is considering that drew a majority. More than 50 percent said they were opposed to shifting start times 20 minutes later, and more than 60 percent opposed moving bell times 35 minutes later, according to the survey results. Tom Israel, executive director of the Montgomery County Education Association, said the study shows that teachers are “pretty overwhelmingly” against changing school start times. “What’s striking is the message was the same from high school, middle school and elementary teachers,” Israel said. “They were pretty strong in believing that it will not have any impact on academic achievement.” He said teachers who were surveyed also raised concerns about lower-income families — with students who have to work after-school jobs or take care of younger siblings — and whether they’d be able to do those activities if the school day is shifted. Teachers also raised concerns, he said, about how late extracurricular activities would go if school start times were changed.
The Science-Backed Reason Schools Should Start Later. (Huffington Post) — Only 3.8 percent of public high schools in the United States start at 9 a.m. or later — particularly troubling for the teens who learn there, who can barely manage seven of hours of sleep each night. Students themselves have joined the debate surrounding later start times, but school systems continue to push back, often citing budget issues as one of the major difficulties.
5am – E Ruth Bader Ginsburg Wants An All-Female Supreme Court. (Daily Caller) — The 81-year-old Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg told law students at Georgetown University this week that she believes there will be “enough” women on the Supreme Court when “there are nine” justices. “People ask me sometimes when do you think it will be enough? When will there be enough women on the court? And my answer is when there are nine,” she said. Ginsburg is currently one of three women sitting on the United States Supreme Court. Sandra Day O’Connor was the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court in 1981 by President Ronald Reagan. Ginsburg became the second female justice on the court when President Bill Clinton appointed her in 1993.
6am – A/B/C Spanking vs. Humiliating: How Do You Discipline Your Kids?
- Pope says it’s OK to spank kids, if their dignity is kept. VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis says it’s OK to spank your children to discipline them – as long as their dignity is maintained. Francis made the remarks this week during his weekly general audience, which was devoted to the role of fathers in the family. Francis outlined the traits of a good father: one who forgives but is able to “correct with firmness” while not discouraging the child. “One time, I heard a father in a meeting with married couples say ‘I sometimes have to smack my children a bit, but never in the face so as to not humiliate them,'” Francis said. “How beautiful!” Francis remarked. “He knows the sense of dignity! He has to punish them but does it justly and moves on.” The Rev. Thomas Rosica, who collaborates with the Vatican press office, said the pope was obviously not speaking about committing violence or cruelty against a child but rather about “helping someone to grow and mature.”
- Barber shames misbehaving kids with ‘old man’ haircuts. (Grio) — A Georgia barber has started offering haircuts for misbehaving kids that he calls the “Benjamin Button Special.” The haircut is considered a form of punishment because it makes young boys look like old men. A-1 Kutz barber shop in Atlanta offers the haircut for free three days a week. The misbehaving child gets a hair-do that resembles a bald adult. “I hope that most people won’t have to do this unless it’s an extreme circumstance and nothing else works,” Russell Fredrick, the barber who created the “old man haircut” said in an interview with The Washington Post.
6am – D INTERVIEW: ROBERT THOMSON – Washington Post's Dr. Gridlock
- I-66 commuters asking same questions about future HOT lanes as did those who travel I-95 & Beltway. Virginia’s plan to rebuild 25 miles of Interstate 66 outside the Capital Beltway is drawing concern among the commuters and communities that would be affected, during the construction and after.
6am – E Maryland news:
- Maryland Senate Delays Vote On Hogan Cabinet. (AP) — The Maryland Senate delayed voting on four of Gov. Larry Hogan's cabinet appointments on Friday, as Democrats who control the chamber continue to express displeasure about the Republican governor's State of the State speech and his budget proposal. The decision holds up confirmation votes for a week on the governor's first four cabinet positions to come before the Senate. Hogan's speech Wednesday has been heavily criticized by Democrats, who said it painted a dire and unfounded picture of Maryland's economy. The delay comes after the Senate panel that initially reviews nominations gave a favorable report to the full Senate on Monday. "We heard the speech 48 hours later, and that kind of set the tone for us utilizing, in a more effective manner, the advise and consent powers that the founders of the state entrusted us with," Sen. Nathanial McFadden, D-Baltimore, said. David Brinkley, Hogan's choice for budget secretary, and Van Mitchell, the governor's nominee to head the state health department, had been up for a Senate vote Friday. David Craig, who is Hogan's pick to lead the Maryland Department of Planning, and Kelly Schulz, his selection to head the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, also were up for a vote. McFadden said senators approached him with concerns immediately after Hogan's speech. He declined to mention them.
- Delegate to propose moratorium on fracking in Western Md. ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — A Maryland lawmaker is hoping to block the start of a hotly debated natural gas drilling method in the western part of the state. Del. David Fraser-Hidalgo, a Democrat from Montgomery County, is set to announce a proposed moratorium on fracking during a news conference in Annapolis on Thursday. Fracking is a style of natural gas drilling in which water, sand and chemicals are blasted underground, shaking loose rocks and releasing gas. Fraser-Hidalgo will be joined by Concerned Health Professionals of Maryland, as well as a member of the Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission, which was established in 2011 under former Gov. Martin O’Malley to study the risks and impacts of fracking on Maryland soil.
- Larry Hogan coming up on the show!
7am – A INTERVIEW – JOE DIGENOVA – legal analyst and former U.S. Attorney to the District of Columbia
- Jordan Strikes At ISIS; Obama Said To Be Preparing To Request War Powers
- NO MEN ALLOWED: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Wants An All-Female Supreme Court
7am – B Grammys 2015: Sam Smith wins 4, Beck takes home album of the year. LOS ANGELES (AP) – Sam Smith's soulful sound and heartbreaking songs resonated with fans – and his breakthrough was solidified when he took home three of the top four Grammy Awards on Sunday, though Beck earned a surprise win for album of the year. "I want to thank the man who this record is about … Thank you so much for breaking my heart because I have four Grammys," said the British singer, who won best new artist, song and record of the year for "Stay with Me" and best pop vocal album for "In the Lonely Hour." Smith, along with Beyonce, Pharrell and Ed Sheeran, lost album of the year Sunday to Beck's "Morning Phase," which also won best rock album. Smith said backstage he was surprised Beyonce didn't win, but said Beck deserved to walk away with the trophy. Kanye West, who famously interrupted Taylor Swift when she beat Beyonce at the MTV Video Music Awards, briefly walked onstage when Prince announced Beck's name. Some in the audience seemed shocked, from Pharrell to Questlove to Beck himself. Beck's album debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 albums chart and sold about 300,000 units. He last won a Grammy in 2000. Pharrell, who was the top nominee with six along with Beyonce and Smith, walked away with three awards, as did Rosanne Cash. The rapper-singer-producer won best pop solo performance for a live version of "Happy," released in 2013 as well as best music video for the song and urban contemporary album for "G I R L," beating Beyonce.
Pharrell's Grammys Performance Includes 'Hands Up Don't Shoot' Tribute. (Huffington Post) — Pharrell Williams paid tribute to the #BlackLivesMatter movement during the Grammys on Sunday night. While performing his hit song "Happy," Pharrell and his dancers (many of whom wore hoodies) held up their hands, mirroring the "Hands Up Don't Shoot" protest. Williams won three Grammy awards before taking the stage on Sunday: Best Pop Solo Performance for "Happy," Best Urban Contemporary Album for his album, "Girl" and Best Music Video for "Happy." He tied with Beyonce and Sam Smith for most Grammy nominations this year, with six each.
7am – C Kerry on 2016: 'Nobody says never.' (Politico) — John Kerry says he hasn’t absolutely, completely ruled out another bid for the White House, but don’t bet on it. At the end of a wide-ranging interview airing Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” host Chuck Todd pressed Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee, whether there was a scenario in which he would run again for president in 2016. “I have no scenario whatsoever in my mind,” Kerry said. “I haven’t thought about it. As you can tell, pretty busy.” When Todd asked, “is it a never say never?” Kerry replied: “Well, nobody says never. But I mean, I have no concept of it.” The former Massachusetts senator lost to then-President George W. Bush in 2004. Now, Kerry’s predecessor, Hillary Clinton, has emerged as the frontrunner for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination.
7am – D Brian Williams Network Drama: Is Network News Dead?
7am – E The fiddling with temperature data is the biggest science scandal ever. New data shows that the “vanishing” of polar ice is not the result of runaway global warming. (Telegraph/Christopher Booker) — When future generations look back on the global-warming scare of the past 30 years, nothing will shock them more than the extent to which the official temperature records – on which the entire panic ultimately rested – were systematically “adjusted” to show the Earth as having warmed much more than the actual data justified. Two weeks ago, under the headline “How we are being tricked by flawed data on global warming”, I wrote about Paul Homewood, who, on his Notalotofpeopleknowthat blog, had checked the published temperature graphs for three weather stations in Paraguay against the temperatures that had originally been recorded. In each instance, the actual trend of 60 years of data had been dramatically reversed, so that a cooling trend was changed to one that showed a marked warming. This was only the latest of many examples of a practice long recognised by expert observers around the world – one that raises an ever larger question mark over the entire official surface-temperature record. Following my last article, Homewood checked a swathe of other South American weather stations around the original three. In each case he found the same suspicious one-way “adjustments”. First these were made by the US government’s Global Historical Climate Network (GHCN). They were then amplified by two of the main official surface records, the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (Giss) and the National Climate Data Center (NCDC), which use the warming trends to estimate temperatures across the vast regions of the Earth where no measurements are taken. Yet these are the very records on which scientists and politicians rely for their belief in “global warming”. Homewood has now turned his attention to the weather stations across much of the Arctic, between Canada (51 degrees W) and the heart of Siberia (87 degrees E). Again, in nearly every case, the same one-way adjustments have been made, to show warming up to 1 degree C or more higher than was indicated by the data that was actually recorded. This has surprised no one more than Traust Jonsson, who was long in charge of climate research for the Iceland met office (and with whom Homewood has been in touch). Jonsson was amazed to see how the new version completely “disappears” Iceland’s “sea ice years” around 1970, when a period of extreme cooling almost devastated his country’s economy. One of the first examples of these “adjustments” was exposed in 2007 by the statistician Steve McIntyre, when he discovered a paper published in 1987 by James Hansen, the scientist (later turned fanatical climate activist) who for many years ran Giss. Hansen’s original graph showed temperatures in the Arctic as having been much higher around 1940 than at any time since. But as Homewood reveals in his blog post, “Temperature adjustments transform Arctic history”, Giss has turned this upside down. Arctic temperatures from that time have been lowered so much that that they are now dwarfed by those of the past 20 years.
8am – A INTERVIEW — MARYLAND GOVERNOR LARRY HOGAN – new Republican Governor of Maryland – discussed his first few weeks in office.
8am – B Sen. Ben Cardin And Others Call For Reducing Excise Tax On Craft Beer. Four U.S. senators, including Maryland Senator Ben Cardin, say they want to help the American craft beer industry by reducing the excise tax on beer made my small brewers. The legislation is proposed by Democrat Ben Cardin of Maryland as well as Connecticut's two senators, Democrats Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy and Republican Susan Collins of Maine. The senators said Friday they are reintroducing the Small Brewer Reinvestment and Expanding Workforce Act, which would reduce taxes and increase the threshold on the definition of a small brewer. The legislation would lower the tax to $3.50 per barrel for the first 60,000 barrels, as compared to $7 per barrel under current law. The senators say the bill would stimulate regional economies nationwide with a reduction in the excise tax on each barrel of beer brewed by small brewers. The bill also changes the threshold definition of a small brewer to better reflect modern production.
8am – C Gondola study gets a lift in Georgetown. They are working on dozens of options to improve how you get in and out of the neighborhood. The options include everything from new bike paths to extra Circulator routes. One of the most talked about options is one that takes to the skies. "What's great about the gondola technology is that there is a car coming by every 10-11 seconds," said Joe Sternlieb, Georgetown BID CEO. The Georgetown Business Improvement District wants to see a gondola lift cross the Potomac River between Rosslyn and Georgetown. "Our goal is to keep people out of their cars and make it really easy to get into and out of this incredible neighborhood. We think the gondola would be an amazing way to do that. We think it would be fun, affordable frequent," said Sternlieb. "Kind of like a single metro car but swinging on ropes," said Chris Thompson, a D.C. resident. "I am a little afraid of heights but I may, I may consider it," said Angela Jones, a worker who commutes to Georgetown. The Georgetown BID has already raised about $130,000 from businesses and private groups on both sides of the river.
8am – D Grammys Recap:
- Grammy moments that made us sit up, take notice. (USA Today) — Sam Smith's big night. "Thank you all for the best night of my life," said a grateful Sam Smith, who won four awards: best new artist, song and record of the year for Stay With Me, and pop vocal album for In the Lonely Hour. "Before I made this record I was doing everything to try and get my music heard," Smith said. "I tried to lose weight and I was making awful music. It was only until I started to be myself that the music started to flow and people started to listen."
- Prince gets deep. Prince introduced the album-of-the-year category with a quote that immediately went viral: "Like books and black lives, albums still matter."
- That woman in the wig is Kristen Wiig. Who better to put on a wig for Sia's Chandelier number than Kristen Wiig? While Sia stood with her face to the wall, Wiig wigged out, scampering around the stage, dancing, emoting, gesturing. She was eventually joined by young dancer and Sia mini-me Maddie Ziegler. The two looked like they were acting out a Saturday Night Live skit.
- Kanye crashes Beck's stage. In a blink-and-you-missed-it moment, Kanye West made as if he were going to interrupt best-album winner Beck, a spoof of West's famous interruption of Taylor Swift in 2009 at the MTV Video Music Awards. West quickly retreated, and as the cameras pulled back to Kanye, everyone around him was laughing. Beck, who also won best rock album, played off it well, saying, "I need some help. Come back!"
- Bad girls: Miranda Lambert gets bleeped, but Miley Cyrus doesn't. Lambert sang Little Red Wagon, from Platinum, which won best country album honors. And in the middle of the sexy bad-girl performance, she was bleeped for uttering one of the seven words you can't say on television. CBS had to know it was coming. There's a line in the song: "I live in Oklahoma/ And I've got long, blonde hair/ And I play guitar, and I go on the road/ And I do all the (stuff) you wanna do."
- Madonna Drops 3 New Songs: Just hours after Madonna took the 2015 Grammys stage with a herd of masked minotaurs to perform "Living for Love," the pop icon released three more tracks from her forthcoming Rebel Heart album.
- AC/DC rocks Grammys, with aid of teleprompter. (Fox News) — LOS ANGELES – Legendary Australian hard rock group AC/DC opened the 57th Grammys with a bang on Sunday night, performing their new single "Rock or Bust" and the iconic "Highway to Hell." But it seems all those decades of rocking out means lyrics — even to your own song — may require a little help remembering. AC/DC were without founding rhythm guitarist Malcolm, who is enduring numerous health issues and has been replaced by his nephew Stevie Young, and teleprompter or not, their blistering two-song set was well-received by both the Grammy crowd and those on social media.
- Pharrell's Grammys Performance Includes 'Hands Up Don't Shoot' Tribute. (Huffington Post) — Pharrell Williams paid tribute to the #BlackLivesMatter movement during the Grammys on Sunday night.
TOMORROW: Larry Kudlow
